Paris-Alger

2003

“Algeria is not part of the world. It is as if it turned its back on it to sink into its own belly. To create there is to rediscover the deep meaning of the cry, measuring one’s own resistance at every moment. The air is dry, brittle, nothing can grow, everything is doomed to break. The body is still burning its last reserves. The mind is caged so that fate can be fulfilled. You have to hold on in order to scream, you have to scream so that everything can start again. I thought that perhaps we should plant a lighthouse in the heart of Algeria to signal to the rest of the world that we are living in a desperate yet tenacious way, to take our place in this lighthouse and believe that we are at the centre of the world. Algeria is not part of the world.”

Nacera Belaza

Artistic team

Choreography Nacera Belaza
Performers Dalila Belaza, Nacera Belaza
Lighting design
Nacera Belaza
Sound editing
Krimo (with the voice of Christophe Lury)

Creation

Dansem, year of Algeria in France

Paris Alger

Production

Nacera Belaza Company

Coproduction

Centre national de la Danse, Pantin

Accueil studio

Centre chorégraphique national de La Rochelle Ballet Atlantique / Régine Chopinot
Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes
Officina de Marseille
Théâtre national d’Alger

Résidence de création

Ville de Paris à la Cité internationale des arts

With the support of

Ministère de la Culture / DRAC Ile-de-France
Ville de Paris
DBM (Danse Bassin Méditerranée)
Algerian Commission for Djazaïr, a year of Algeria in France and the AFAA – Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Commissioned as part of the Year of Algeria in France.